[Intro]

My fellow Americans

Major combat operations in Iraq have ended and the battle of Iraq

The United States and our allies have prevailed

[Verse]

What will you write on my tombstone

Once our child is fully grown

The date of my arrival and departure

Or is my flight just another charter

I’m overthinking all the unnecessary factors

While dancing around the real issue like silent era actors

I remember every bullet loaded into our magazinеs

Even the smell of smokе takes me back to all those scenes

Firefights between extremists in such an unfamiliar territory

I thought the reward for serving my country was compensatory

We left the land with our minds detached and lives traumatized

Safe to say I never saw these men again once my life was digitized

Never tried to rebuild my bridges as they burned down

Swimming around in my feelings of guilt and shame as I began to drown

Deep in the ocean of paranoia and flashbacks to bullet wounds

But returning home halted me from moving forward when life had resumed

Change will never come when we refuse to leave our glass houses

Living in a world we refuse to interact with and understand

Keeping this wealth of knowledge away from our own spouses

Scared of losing who we love and what we earn in this apathetic wasteland

You could dig a hole deep enough to bury all of your problems

But there’s only so much time you can afford before you have to solve ‘em

Isolation was the only way to become steadfast and headstrong

That’s why I stayed away from saying a single thing for so long

So long

I love you

[Outro]

This nation thanks all the members of our coalition who joined in a noble cause

We thank the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland who shared in the hardships of war

We thank all the citizens of Iraq who welcomed our troops and joined in the liberation of their own country